Day Six

First things first, two things that should have but didn't make yesterday's blog. I realised having gone to bed that they hadn't been put in and couldn't be bothered to get up and edit it. 

Number one - Ann picked up an injury to her ankle, don't know what, she just said it started hurting and therefore she had to limp to the White House in the evening.

Number two - On one of our many journeys on the Washington metro we had a hilarious episode. We waited for a train to come in, then when it did we moved to the nearest door. A man on a scooter needed to get off so everybody stood back and let him out. Then I proceeded to board said carriage. On entering carriage I looked for where Ann had sat down. Much to my dismay she wasn't on the carriage and nobody else was getting on. I stuck my head out to see if she was on the station and she wasn't so wondered where she was. Checked inside again, no sign. Checked outside again, no sign. Thought oh well and stayed on the train as the doors shut. Decided to look through locked door into next carriage. Spotted Ann looking around very worriedly. Laughed. Started waving furiously at her. Finally she spotted me just as people on her carriage started asking her if everything was ok. Needless to say I got the blame for getting on at the door that we had both been stood at.

Anyway moving on to today. 

Woke up late due to lots of sleeping. Slightly worried as by the time of going to sleep the sat nav had only dowloaded 13% of the maps in about 3 hours. Luckily it had finished the job overnight.. Felt more confident. Got ready and checked out of hotel. Caught cab to Reagan Airport to pick up the hire car. Passed the Watergate Hotel and the Pentagon. Went to hire desk, served by grumpy man (The first and only grumpy person we met in Washington). Filled in stuff and went to collect car. Another man said I'll show you over to your car. We walked 50 yards and then he said 'Pick any one of these and drive out'. He then walked off. Wondered if we had heard him correctly. Turned out we had. We had the choice of about ten cars. Picked a Jeep. Got in and drove off. Set off at 11am.

Sat nav started to prove being a good buy as it made driving so easy. Told you which lane to approach junctions in, etc. Thought what an excellent purchase. Got out of Washington and headed North to Niagara. Got stuck in traffic. Remain high spirited despite the delay by playing with the car. Eventually moved again and travelled on a while before stopping for lunch in Hancock. http://www.weaversrestaurant.com/index.html

Also popped in Save-a-lot to get some supplies for the journey. Got back on the road and planned to pretty much go non stop to Niagara. Started well, plugged the ipod in, breezed along. Then uh oh, more traffic. Got moving again and then handed the reins to Ann. All going swimmingly, then we needed some fuel. Pulled over to a garage and stopped. we thought open the petrol cap and it will tell us which fuel to get. Wrong. We thought it will say somewhere on the paperwork. Wrong. We thought it would say in the car handbook. There wasn't one. Oh dear. Stared at petrol pump for a while. Asked man in kiosk what he thought. He made a suggestion, we went with it.

Dying for the loo by now. Asked man where restrooms were, he said in the superstore shop. Went over to shop. Male toilet out of order. Thought bollocks to that so went in the ladies whilst Ann kept guard. Came out to find Ann explaining to some fat miserable woman why she couldn't go in. Ran away.

Got going again, filled up and raring to go. Phoned B and B, told them ETA was 9.30pm. Pootled along nicely until reached Buffalo only a few miles from Niagara. It is a decent sized city. Thought we'll be there in no time.

At this point one of those things that can only happen to you happened. The sat nav turned itself off and wouldn't go back on again. And yes it had been plugged in. We had no map but thought follow the signs to Canada, how hard can it be. Very was the answer as there was only one sign to Canada and that was almost immediately. Then just kept driving making shrewd judgements about where to go.  Eventually had to stop as it was impossible to tell where we were. Getting late. Prayed the sat nav would come back on. Eventually it did, but seemed to be rather hungover. It shouted incoherent instructions which made no sense and took us no where worthwhile. Eventually it sobered up and got us to Canada.

Woman Canada Guard asked us if we had any guns. I wanted to shoot the sat nav. Finally arrived at B and B at 10.30pm. Hurrah! Woman who runs it seems nice but mental. Four other guests all from Britain apparently. Don't care! Want to go to sleep! We are in the Ruby Room. It is red.

Ruby Ruby Ruby arhhharahhahahha

Looking forward to not being in car tomorrow!

Day Five

Best night's sleep so far. Didn't get woken up until 8am. Hurrah! Bad news was that I had a dream about bears attacking people outside of school. Turned out one of the bears was a man dressed as a bear. Then just to make it better, lions turned up and started attacking the bears. Interesting start to the day.

Beautiful sunny day. Bought one day metro pass. Metro is very easy to follow, there are 5 lines each called a colour, i.e blue, etc, and then on the map it is marked by a line of that colour. Ingenious. First stop Arlington Cemetery, a military place with thousands of graves. Lots of scout groups everywhere all wearing matching stuff. Dib dib!

A very small section

One particulary famous resident.

JFK's final resting place

Also watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Heat was intense. Felt sorry for the guy who had to march back and forth wearing a full uniform.

Made our way back into the city and stopped by Radio Shack to buy a micro sd card for the sat nav. Next, headed down to the mall to spend the rest of the day seeing the sights.

First stop was the Museum of Natural History. Got worried when I saw the bear and lion exhibits. Brought back bad memories. General impression of the museum was that it was slightly basic in terms of the information. They probably didn't want to make it too difficult for their own people to understand.

Bear or man dressed as a bear?

Then moved onto the Museum of American History. First item we saw was the original star spangled banner that inspired the national anthem. On a bizarre note as we left that exhibit a massive USA flag had been unfurled in the lobby and was being held by a crowd of people who then proceeded to sing the national anthem followed by cheering themselves at the end. Thought that it wouldn't happen back home. Couldn't decide if it was very patriotic or just plain weird. Very disappointed with the museum as a whole, not really anything that interesting in it. For example, there were old violins from Italy even though it was the Museum of American History.

Had lunch in its cafe which was good. Spent a long time people watching, comparing what they bought to body size. You can guess the trend. Was very surprised to see Dan Thomas from the drama group there, or was it?

Is it Dan and who is the murderer next to him?

Next made the long walk to Capitol Hill to see the House of Congress. Told them to sort it out else there'll be trouble.

Then having got bored of walking lots we commandeered a Pedicab.

Made him take us to the other end of the mall. Felt fairly lazy as we sat back and did nothing on the journey.
Managed to walk the last 40 yards ourselves.

Saw the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool.

Abe the babe

Decided to be lazy again so got Tophatman to take us back the other way. Ended up at the Washington Monument. Took arty photo.

Pointy

Next we went to the Air and Space Museum. Best museum of the day by far. Saw the real first ever successful flying plane made by Orville and Keith Harris. Also saw the actual Spirit of St Louis, the first plane to cross the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. Amongst all this stuff we also saw Dr Evil's rocket.

Mwahahahahahah!!

The time now being 7.30pm we decided to eat dinner so we made our way up to Chinatown and went to Ella's Wood Fired Pizza. http://www.ellaspizza.com/  Excellent grub. Nice people. In and out in 30mins tops.

One last stop to make before heading home, although the guy who lives there wasn't home.

Mr President's House

Finally got in at 9.15pm. Absolutely knackered. Now trying to load USA maps onto sat nav ready for picking up the car tomorrow.

Things we learnt today:

1. Washington is great, much friendlier and cleaner than New York.

2. Ann is a giant in this country. Everybody seems to be shorter than her. I feel like Gigantor.

Day Four

Woke up at 3am sweating like a pig. Had to put noisy air con on due to intense heat. Then had to turn it off again when cooled down as it was so noisy. Bad start to the day.

Awoke properly later on tinged with sadness that we had to leave New York already. Wondered what the next place would bring and would it be as good.  Thought about a jog, decided it might rain so didn't bother.

Packed everything up by 8.30am and left the apartment. Luckily rain had just stopped. Carried the world's heaviest luggage to the subway station. Some issues getting through the barriers with so much stuff. Waited for a train. One turned up, no chance of getting on it as it was heaving and we were carrying 16 elephants.

Eventually got on metro and travelled to Penn Station. Got lost looking for the ticket machine, couldn't find it anywhere. Gave up lugging heavy stuff around and was sent to find out where ticket machine was. Asked someone, they said upstairs. Went upstairs to find the big concourse with a million machines. We'd been wandering around the wrong level. Scanned barcode from printed email we'd had for months and machine magically printed our tickets. Waited for train.

Amtrak 141 to Washington DC

Journey took 3 and 1/2 hours. Seemed to pass by in a couple of seconds. Main entertainment was Marv the guard, who obviously enjoys his job. Pure entertainment everytime he walked down to check tickets or spoke over the PA system. He sang, wisecracked and generally arsed about the whole journey. Legend!

Arrived at Union Station, Washington DC at 1pm. Station was incredible, absolutely massive and stunning.

The amazing Union Station

Weather looked ok. Got a cab.

Indian driver asked us where we wanted to go. We said 'The River Inn'. He then pulled away, chatted on the phone to someone for ages before pulling over and saying 'Here we are'. We said 'This is the Regency Hotel'. He looked confused. Took quite a while to explain where we actually wanted to go as he didn't appear to speak English.

Eventually arrived at the River Inn, Foggy Bottom. Checked in, people seemed really friendly. Made a change. Got up to room 406, a Potomac Suite, which Ann had negotiated as an upgrade last November. Good work, the room is bigger than the New york apartment! Has a great feel to it.

Lounge

Lounge

Bedroom

Kitchen

Bathroom

Dining area

Got acquainted with the room and let thunderstorm pass before heading out to Trader Joe's to buy some grub. Crossed over Pennsylvania Avenue on the way there. Big famous house further along it apparently.

Back for tea and relaxation before tomorrow's big day of stuff.

Day Three

Woken up by some badger getting up at 6am again. Tried to go back to sleep for second day running. Too hot, so got up. Thought about jog around Central Park, then quickly thought of something else.

Headed downtown on the metro to the Federal Reserve Bank (Die Hard 3) (Still doing the movie references).  It was guarded by people with big guns.  Had booked a tour of the building. Gun people let us in. Metal detected and x-rayed before getting in. Weren't allowed to take pictures in there in case Jeremy Irons wants to break in again.  Saw what was the world's most expensive coin, a 1933 double eagle, costing just shy of $7.6million. Its life story was quite funny and fascinating. It is legal tender so if you stole it you can get $20 worth of stuff with it!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_Double_Eagle

Went down to the vault which is 50m under sea level sitting on the bedrock on Manhattan Island, guarded by a 90 tonne revolving door.  Saw $240billion worth of gold. Quite impressed.

Bank is on the right

Headed east from bank to the World Trade Centre site.  It is now a construction site. Went into the preview building to see what the finished place will look like. There will be two huge water pools, one in the footprint of each of the two towers plus a visitor centre etc. Very eerie feeling when you think that 9 years ago it would still be there and a few weeks after that it would be gone taking 3000 people with it. When you think it was twice the height of the buildings still standing there, you wonder how they managed to be untouched when such a massive structure collapsed. All in all a worthwhile place to see, even if just to remind you about the events of that day.

Meandered our way down to Battery Park to investigate the possibility of taking a boat trip out to Liberty and Ellis Islands. Looked at the queue which went all the way back to Ermington and decided against wasting most of our last day standing in a conga line. You could see it from the park anyhow.

Having rested for a while due to the fact we were melting we headed back north to Washington Square. Whilst travelling there on the metro came up with an idea for a film, 'Nuns on a Plane', an action thriller in which a doomed flight is saved by some ass kicking nuns.

Had lunch in The Cozy Diner. Miserable man served us. Makes a change. Ann's sandwich was not as big as yesterday. Wandered to Washington Square (I am Legend)

Headed out of the square towards metro station. Walked past a man covered in pigeons. Didn't think people would believe me so took a picture. He didn't seem to want them to go away. Seemed strange. Reminded us of that woman who used to be in Casualty who plays a bag lady in Home Alone 2.

Pigeonman

Made our way to see the Brooklyn Bridge (Every film ever set in New York). It was a bridge.

Got on the wrong train and ended up in Harlem. Got on another train back again. Went home. Tired.

Attempted to make pancakes from a packet in a glass frying pan. Didn't go well. Tasted good though.

Another fried mess you got me into

Day three over. Leaving New York at 9.30am tomorrow. Where is the time going? Must try to get jog in Central Park done by the time we leave. Bedtime.

Day Two

Woken up at 6am by somebody making a cup of tea and taking pictures of the sunrise. Tried to go back to sleep to no avail. Gave in and got up.

Sunrise over Manhattan

Decision made not to go for a jog as legs hurt quite alot. Not sure I would even make it out of the building. Had breakfast instead.

Left apartment at 9.30am and headed to the nearest subway station. Bought a pass to last the whole time we are here. Got on metro train. It was air-conditioned which was a pleasant suprise. Ann nutted a woman whilst on board. I felt it was a little uncalled for. 

Headed to the Empire State Building (King Kong, An Affair to Remember, Sleepless in Seattle). Used express pass to beat the queues and went to the observation deck. Spent a lot of time trying to avoid foreign types. Took some pictures of things you could see. Could have spent the entire day up there as the views were breathtaking.

South to the Financial District and the Statue of Liberty to the right

North towards Central Park

Next headed to Macy's (Miracle on 34th street) to have a look around. Bad idea. Someone tried to buy shoes. It wasn't me. Saw first fat person too lazy to walk using a scooter in store.


Next headed to New York Public Library (The Day After Tomorrow, Sex and the City, Ghostbusters). No huge wave chased us in.  Disappointed that the facade was under wraps due to refurbishment. Looked around it. There were books on shelves. Not that surprised by this. No ghosts.

Then onto Grand Central Station (I am Legend - The bit when Fred has moved - ''What the hell you doing here, Fred!') Big station, there were trains there. Not surprised again.

'Tell me now if you are real, Fred!'

The main lobby of Grand Central

Had lunch downstairs in station. Ann's sandwich was quite big.

Stopped by the Chrysler building afterwards before heading back towards Central Park (Friends, Die Hard 3). Sat down to relax.

Left park and went home. Sat around a bit then went out again at about 8.30pm.

Went home ate Ben and Jerry's ice cream, time for bed.

Important discoveries today:

1.  Knowledge of New York is pretty much based on films and TV.

2. New York is like London except that the cabs are yellow and it is hotter.

Day One

Spent the night at Alice and George's flat by Wandsworth Road in London. The sleep results were as follows - Richard Lots - Ann Nil.   Got a cab at 8.15am with the most miserable driver ever. Made it to Earls Court in one piece. Tube to Heathrow Terminal 5, uneventful. Try to check the luggage in on arrival, the woman pointed out we had arrived slightly too early so had to wait for what seemed like fifteen hours, when in fact  it was just one. When finally allowed to get rid of the baggage it was amazingly underweight!

Baggage

Due to boredom whilst airside bought a sat nav from Dixon's. Ann got a smell in a bottle or something.

Gate opened. Travelled on train to other building to correct gate. Sat down. Boarding started. Walked downstairs on to tarmac, to get on a bus that took us back to the original building to get on the plane there. Couldn't work out why they made us travel to a gate so far away. Presume plane was scared of other building.

Flight was fine except for the Spanish family in front whose children kept climbing over seats. All was redeemed when one of them chucked up over themselves as we landed. Quality!

Another miserable man drove us into NY. finally got to the apartment. It is brilliant, a lovely place. 116 West 72nd street.

Lounge

Kitchen

Bathroom

Went out for a wander. Annoyed a woman by buying a $1 pizza slice with a $10 note.

Went to a small supermarket type shop. Got orange juice, cereal and milk for breakfast. More miserable people. New York seems full of them!

Typing this at 10.10pm NY time which to us is actually 3.10am. Going to bed now as slightly tired.

Hoping to go for a early morning jog around Central park tomorrow. Bye.

This is our gameplan!

In case you are unsure of what our trip consists of, this is a quick overview.

Sunday 25th July - Head to London by train.
Monday 26th July - Fly out to New York.

Then taking in the following places in just over four weeks:

New York
Washington
Niagara Falls
Grand Rapids
Yellowstone
Grand Teton
Utah and Arizona National Parks - Arches, Canyonlands, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Zion and Bryce Canyon
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
San Francisco


Travelling by train, car and ship (mainly car!!)

Arrive back in UK on 24th August, absolutely knackered!

It is now four days to go. We are just waiting,